Local senator Joe O'Reilly has defended the government's response to the growing problem of asylum seekers crossing the border from the north to here. Acknowledging immigration is an issue for many residents on this side of the border, Senator O'Reilly, said the UK's Rwanda policy "won't stand the test of time" and so the numbers of international protection applicants coming from Britain to the Republic of Ireland via Northern Ireland should decrease.
The border senator praised new legislation to be brought forward by Justice Minister Helen McEntee soon, which would return all such applicants back to Britain. He said Irish airport users will have noticed an increased security presence and said the Justice Minister had removed Nigeria off Ireland's safe country list.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan Show earlier, Senator O'Reilly said the new legislation to return people back to Britain will do just that: "I think the Rwanda policy won't stand the test of time with a new political configuration in place," Senator O'Reilly said, "in the interim, we'll pass legislation that we'll send people back and basically we will just do that; fly people into various places in the UK."
